AT&T recently announced a new service that allows businesses to make branded calls to AT&T wireless users This is the phone company's latest attempt to put a stop to the high number of robo-callers in the US

If you have an Android phone that uses AT&T, you do not have to do anything to receive branded calls from authenticated companies Instead, when you receive a call from a company, you will see that company's logo displayed while the phone rings If you happen to not answer the call, their logo will also appear in the call details

If you are using another type of mobile operating system, ie, an iPhone user, you will need to make sure that your phone is unlocked or that facial recognition is turned on in order to receive branded calls This makes the service slightly less effective on Android devices, but it would still be a welcome addition to the battle against the flood of telemarketing calls

Over the past decade, the number of telemarketing complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission has increased significantly This new plan by AT&T to partner with credit reporting firms will, in theory, allow businesses to differentiate themselves from potential spam calls [Erin Scarborough, AT&T's senior vice president of mass market product management, said in a press release that although Neustar's name is not well known, as the company that manages one of the central databases of phone numbers in the United States, it has a significant impact on the daily lives of many people It has been called "the most important company you've never heard of" by "Buzzfeed" after it responded to a law enforcement agency's request for surveillance in 2012

Companies can participate by signing up for the TruContact Branded Call Display, accessible through credit reporting agency TransUnion When a company signs up to participate, it will find that its calls will use the same anti-spoofing protocol that the Federal Communications Commission requires carriers to implement, called the STIR/SHAKEN protocol

This is an interesting feature and may bring some relief to those inundated with spam calls One of the biggest security concerns these days is the rise of generative AI-based phones that can mimic everything from businesses to the voices of loved ones However, there is currently no information on how this will affect the cloned numbers in use, or whether this feature will eventually spread overseas